(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making a basic material for the production of a biologically active preparation, such as pepsin/or mucin, for stomachs of swines or hogs.
(2) Description of prior art
It is known to produce pepsin from a basic material gained from swine stomachs containing pepsin and/or precursors thereof (in the following called pepsin) in the mucous cells located at the so-called fundus regions of the stomachs. When the stomachs to be used for the production of the said basic material have been removed from slaughtered swines or hogs, each stomach is opened by a cut whereafter the inside is turned out and the stomach is rinsed by water. Several methods of making a basic material or starting material for the production of pepsin from such rinsed swine stomachs are known. By one of the methods presently most frequently used the mucous membrane of the fundus region is removed from the stomach by making a certain cut in the stomach wall, whereafter the total membrane is torn off. In a succeeding operation the pylorus and cardia parts of the membrane are cut off if necessary so that only the fundus membrane and the mucous cells fastened therein remain. This work may be made manually as well as mechanically. However, due to the difficulty of the work it has proved very difficult to obtain a well-trimmed product in current production in industrial scale. Thus, at the rate of operation necessary it often happens in practice that substantial parts of muscular and fatty tissue are torn off together with the fundus membrane on which the pepsin containing cells or glandular tissue are positioned. Furthermore, cutting of the pylorus and cardia parts of the mucous membrane is ofte made imperfect.
If further working of the membrane torn off from swine stomachs is to take place at another location--which is normally the case--they must be packed and frozen before shipment. At the location where the frozen fundus membranes are to be further processed they are thawed and thereafter comminuted, for example in a mincing machine or meat grinder, whereby a material having a coarse-grained forcemeat-like consistency is obtained. From the basic or starting material thus made pepsin may be produced, for example by using a method as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,305,714. As explained above the starting material made by the above known method will contain substantial parts of tissue being without interest for the production of pepsin, such as connective tissue and muscular tissue. The contents of pepsin in the fundus regions of stomachs from swines or hogs are different for different breeds of pigs, and may also be dependent on the age and on the feeding and other growth conditions of the swines or pigs. As the starting material made by using the above known method only has a small content of the interesting pepsin-containing glandular tissue, mucous tissue with a satisfactory yield pepsin per unit of weight of the starting material is obtained only if well-trimmed fundus membranes from swine stomachs having a relatively high content of pepsin are used. Due to the fact that the starting material or basic material produced by the known methods are also rather unlike as far as pepsin content and trimming quality are concerned, it has not been possible in practice to give adequate specifications for the starting material.